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18 Sheets-Sheet 1.

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B. F. SHAW, Deod.

' J. BUTLER, Executor.

. KNITTING MACHINE. I No. 469,200. Patented Feb 16, 1892.

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KNITTING MACHINE. No. 469,200, E Patented Feb. 16,1892.

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(No Model.) 18 Sheets-Sheet 3.

B. F. SHAW, Decd.

J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No 469,200. Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MAGHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16,1892.

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B. F. SHAW, Decd.

J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb.- 16, 1892.

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B. F. SHAW, Deod.

J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

N0. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

N0.-469,200. Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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B. F. SHAW, Deod.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No.469,200. PatentedFeb. 16,1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16, 1892.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

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J. BUTLER, Executor. KNITTING MACHINE.

No. 469,200. Patented Feb. 16,-1892.-

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOSIAH BUTLER, OF LOlVELL, MASSACHUSETTS, EXECUTOR OF BENJAMIN E. SHAWV, DECEASED, ASSIGNOR TO THE SHAWV STOCKING COMPANY, OF

SAME PLACE.

KNITTING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 469,200, dated February 16, 1892.

Application filed April 24, 1291.

To allluhom it may concern.-

Be it known that BENJAMIN F. SHAW, deceased, late a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Moultonborough, county of Carroll, State of New Hampshire, did invent an Improvement in Knitting-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters and figures on the drawings rep IO resenting like parts. I

In the manufacture of so-called seamless stockings on circular-knitting machines the cam-cylinder is rotated continuously when the circular or tubular parts of the leg and feet are being made and the same yarn is laid in circular courses and appears at the front and back of the leg and at the front or top and back or sole of the foot, the cam-cylinder being reciprocated or moved back and forth while heels and toes are being made, the fabric being narrowed and then widened, only part of the needles being used during the formation of heels and toes. The machine to be herein described has been devised to produce a more attractive and salable stocking of the so-called seamless variety, and to do this the entire stocking, including the leg, foot, heel, and toe, is produced by reciprocal knitting.

The machine to be described contains what are denominated as front needles, sutureneedles, and back needles. The front needles knit the front of the leg and foot, the back needles the back of the leg and foot, as well as the heel and toe pouches, and the suture-needles unite the semicircular courses of loops made on the front and back needles from separate distinct yarns carried by different yarn-guides and alike or different in color or material, as desired, the said courses being joined together, semi-course to semicourse, end to end, as laid, the suture-needles thus acting to unite into a tubular fabric what would otherwise be two flat fabrics made on the front and back needles. These suture- Serial No- 390,2'73. (N0 model.)

containing loops of both yarns alternated; but when several suture-needles are used and each is controlled independently by a sutureneedle pattern-surface the junction of the two fabrics may be so made as to leave an ornamentalorsort of herring-bone stripe which may be greatly diversified by the order in which the suture -needles in succeeding courses are caused to take one or the other of the different yarns; or, in other words, the endmost loops of several consecutive semi-courses may be made to terminate upon any one of the four sutureneedles of each set of suture-needles, thus enabling the ending of the semicircular courses to be staggered)? When the machine has leg, the front needles used in the front of the stocking are thrown out of operation, and they hold their loops while the series of back needles and the suture-needles are actuated to knit a narrowed portion of fabric and then a complemental widened portion to form a heel. Then all the needles are again put into opera tion to knit the top and bottom of the foot, and, the foot finished, the back and suture needles are again operated to narrow and then widen for the production of a toe. During the narrowing operation the suture-needles lose their individuality as needles for joining semi-courses of loops from different yarns and become regular members ofthe back fashioning-needles used in the formation of the heel and toe. The back needles and the sutureneedles co-operating with them for the production of heels and toes are for this work placed under the control of a jacquard; but the pattern-surface referred to for the sutureneedles continues to move and keeps some of the levers of the suture-needle carriages out of the path of the auxiliary Jacquard or lever cam, as will be described. The suture-needles and those of the back needles which are under the control of the jacquard become fashioning-needles, and as such someof them, oommencin g with the suture-needles, are rendered inoperative at each end of each course after the thread has been laid, as provided for in United States Patents Nos. 438,685 and 228,480, said needles holding their loops so that each the leg and foot, 'making a longitudinal Wale knitted a sufficient number of courses for a Y course of reciprocating knitting in narrowing is commenced on a needle nearer the center of the said course than at the end of the preceding course, the narrowing being continued until there are left knitting only the shortcourse needles which are used in making the stitches for the shortest course of loops in the heel or toe, the latter needles not being under the control of the jacquard, but knitting all the time, after which the needles previously thrown out of action and yet holding their loops are again lifted to knit in widening the fabric, as provided for in the said patents. In widening abetter junction of the narrowed and widened parts is made by throwing into action two needles at the farther side of the series of needles being used as the cam goes off the said series of needles, and at this time the last needle to be passed over by the said cam is put out of action; but as the said cam completes its stroke in the opposite direction the single needle which was put out of action at the previous stroke is put into action, together with an adjacent needle, and at the opposite end of the series of needles the end most needle, or one of the two needles put into action at the previous stroke of the cam, is put out of action. In this way one of the two needles put into action is the single needle which was put out ofaction at a previous stroke, and the single needle to be put out of action is one of the two needles which was put into action at a previous stroke. The fashioning-needles are lifted by levers connected to longitudinally-reciprocating carriages, each carriage having an attached driver adapted to be acted upon by a bar or card of a jacquard, the said drivers being normally held out by suitable springs, the levers referred to being each in position to be acted upon to reciprocate its co-operating needle whenever the driver joined to its carriage enters a hole in the Jacquard bar or chain. WVhen the said drivers are acted upon by the Jacquard chain and thesaid carriages are pushed in, their lovers are put out of the path of movement of the Jacquard cam for actuating them and the needles opposite the carriages so moved in are put out of operative position. In the last course of knitting in widening all carriages but oneviz., the one controlling the needle which is to be the first one crossed by the cam when going onto the levers-are left out; but this particular carriage is pushed in, so that the needle controlling its lever will not be moved by the Jacquard cam, but said needle will hold its yarn, thus avoiding a hole or skipped stitch. Now this carriage during the first stroke of the machine in tubular knitting must be out, so as to let its lever be struck and the needle co-operating with it knit, and to do this the machine has means for pushing aside the inner end of the driver which holds the carriage then pressed in, so that as the first semicourses for tubular knitting are to be laid the spring co-operating with that carriage The machine herein to be described contains a series of web-holders; but as the camplate for actuating them has now only a movement of reciprocation the cams for moving the web-holders are duplicated at-,,diametrically-opposite points thereon. The yarn or thread guides have each two or more holes to thus present to the needles in the formation of the leg, heel, foot, and toe the proper yarns. v

The machine in practice will have a series of timing-wheels, which will be ratcheted along and at the proper time will effect certain changesas, for instance, the change from tubular knitting to heel-work when the leg is of proper length, the change from narrowing to widening, from widening to tubular knitting to determine the length of the tubular foot, the application of a thickening-thread at any desired time upon the run ning thread used for heels and toes or for other parts of the stocking, the cutting off of the thickening-thread and the stopping of the machineand the yarns in practice may be taken from any suitable spindles and be led over and through suitable tension and takeup devices, all substantially as provided for in said patents,so the said parts need not be herein specifically described; yet some of the timing-wheels will be shown and brief reference made to the parts attached to them.

One part of this invention consists in a knitting machine containing the following instrnmentalities, viz: a needle-cylinder containing a series of front and back needles and suture needles arranged between the front and back needles, as described, a reciprocating cam-cylinder having cams for reciprocating said needles in the needle-cylinder, independent yarn -guides, one to present a yarn to the front needles and the other to the back needles, each guide at times presenting its yarn to the suture-needles, and a pattern device to select which of the suture-needles shall be elevated and take yarn while the cam-cylinder has imparted to it reciprocal movements and the machine is operating to produce a tubular fabric, whereby the interloopment of the semicourses made upon the different series of needles by reciprocal movements of the machine may be joined in pattern, substantially as will be described.

Other features of invention will be hereinafter described in the specification and made subject of claim at the end thereof.

IIO

Figure l is'a plan View of a machine em- 

